North Korean TV airs edited SKorean programs to highlight social problems in rival nation

North Korean TV aims to show dark side of South

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean state TV has aired South Korean footage edited to highlight social and economic problems in the far richer South in a rare move apparently aimed at quashing rumors among the North’s impoverished people that the rival country is better off.

Shabby houses in slum areas, the homeless and jobless, and citizens expressing grievances toward the government were shown in 10 minutes of footage broadcast Wednesday night and monitored by The Associated Press in Seoul. The clip was culled from South Korean TV programs and logos of southern networks like KBS and MBC were visible on screen.

“The South Korean economy is now miserably crumbling,” said a North Korean narrator with gloomy music playing in the background. She accused the South’s conservative, pro-U.S. President Lee Myung-bak of seeking “anti-people economic policies” and called him a “traitor.”

“An absolute majority of South Korean people are living miserable lives,” she said.

Lee is a routine target of North Korean condemnations. His hard-line policies on Pyongyang since taking office early last year — such as cutting off unconditional aid to the impoverished country — has angered the North, prompting it to suspend all reconciliation talks and key joint projects.

South Korea, which a half-century ago was one of the world’s poorest countries, has steadily grown to become one of its most economically developed. It is home to international powerhouses such as Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor and is known for its advanced technology.

Still, development has bypassed some. Homeless people and beggars can be seen in the capital Seoul.

North Korea has relied on outside handouts to feed its hunger-stricken 24 million people since natural disasters and mismanagement devastated its economy in the 1990s. The totalitarian regime in Pyongyang strictly controls information on the outside world, while trying to strengthen the personality cult of authoritarian leader Kim Jong Il.

Still, word appears have spread among North Koreans that the South is much richer. Thousands of North Koreans defect to the South Korea each year, usually via China, to escape harsh conditions in their communist country.

A state-run South Korean think tank reported last week that South Korean movies and soap operas, smuggled from China, are increasingly popular among North Koreans despite threats of harsh punishment for viewing them.

Hong Hyun-ik, an analyst at another think thank, the Sejong Institute, said the footage aired Wednesday illustrates the North Korean regime’s unease.

“I think the North aired the edited footage after struggling over how to control word that the South is richer than the North,” he said. “By showing a reality, which is of course a distorted reality, I think the North’s government is trying to tell its people that it’s not hiding anything and they shouldn’t believe rumors.”